Wayanad Writings (Part Two)

01.04.2010

We saw common monkeys, white monkeys, black monkeys, deer, Malabar great squirrels and wild boar but didn’t catch nary a glimpse of an elephant. Subair, our driver, took it rather personally. He has not yet failed to sight an elephant on one of his trips to Muthanga Sanctuary, so this failure was unacceptable. He tried everything, from scrutinising every movement deep in the forest (we saw a peacock, or at least its departing backside!), and going slow at their favourite haunts to actually halting the jeep to wait for a glimpse  of the animal (a risky proposition in the forest. Rumour went that a man trying to photograph a jumbo ventured a little too deep into the forest and was mauled by a tiger and this was supposed to have happened a few days ago, a few metres from where we were trying to spot giant squirrels!). In hindsight, over multiple journeys I’ve noticed a pattern, there always seems to be a tiger attack a few metres away, a few days ago, whichever part of the country we happen to be!

Image Courtesy: Ashwin Kumar from Bangalore, India, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Subair’s desperation was also caused by the fact that except me, no one had spotted the young elephant the previous day, despite the fact that it had been mere metres away from the jeep (prompting Subair, not the elephant, to flee and causing the missed opportunity. Can’t blame him. Wouldn’t want a scared jumbo or its angry mother after us!)

Anyway that was the last part of the journey. We started with a visit to Kanthampara Waterfalls, a visual treat with bird calls abounding (though they all preferred to remain anonymous!). It was fun going down the water-beaten rocks (mom made it too!) I kept telling myself ‘I’m a goat!’ as I laboriously made my way after Subair who clambered up and down like the herbivore and kept taunting us about our ‘fabulous’ balance and general cowardice (my cowardice actually ;)

Hardly felt like leaving the place but mother hen was clucking (sorry dad! ;) So off went we to Edakkal. (After seeing our faltering attempts at slithering down the rocks Subair shot down our plan of going to Meenmutty Falls, a three-tiered waterfall, dubbed ‘a very tough trek’)

Anyway, Edakkal… wow! I’ve never ever climbed and slithered up and down rocks like I did that day! Scary? That’s not the word! The ‘I’m a goat’ mantra came back along with ‘I don’t like this!’ (Hate going down any place. Going up is fine, don’t ask me why!) We clambered up steep rocks on legs trembling with strain. A slight slip and down we would have gone to where we could see buses plying on roads, like toys!

Mom bravely made her way to mid-point but the way further was tough even for us, so no way were we taking mom along. She was tired too. She didn’t argue at all (this after childhood tales of running like a goat over rocks to her school 5 km away!). Dad was a trooper. Despite his asthma, diabetes and arthritis he gamely plodded on.

All that climbing led us to an ancient naturally-made gigantic crevice in the rocks, formed by an earthquake. ‘Edakkal’ is literally a mammoth rock ‘kal’ (equal to a three-storey building) stuck between ‘eda’ two rocks, right over our heads! The area was discovered in 1894 by a Britisher (who else!). It has writing in Tamil-Brahmi script (barely legible) which basically said ‘some king who killed a tiger (a great feat for those times) was here’.

Image Courtesy: Rahul Ramdas, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Crude hieroglyph-like carvings of women, deer and wheels could also be discerned. Then there was the crevice. Only seen others like it in pictures.

The view from the top was panoramic. You could see the entire countryside as well as ‘phantom rock’ (a rock balanced on the very tip of another rock) in the distance. The exercise was so tiring, I expected every bone, muscle, hair and nail to ache (I only slightly exaggerate).